Hokum Review: A Satisfying Witch’s Brew of Mystery and Horror
Hokum is the new film from Irish horror maestro Damian McCarthy. Adam Scott, perhaps best known for his memorable turn in Severance, is Ohm Bauman, a misanthropic writer with a troubled personal history, who visits Ireland to scatter his parents’ ashes. He stays at a creepy old hotel owned by a creepy old man. The staff are also a little creepy. They claim to have a witch locked up tight in the honeymoon suite, which is an absolute no-go area. Then a member of staff goes missing – she isn’t creepy at all – and so, of course, Ohm must go up and investigate. Cue tension and terror aplenty.
Hokum wears its influences firmly on its sleeve. Troubled writer stays in haunted hotel… um, The Shining. There is a haunted room at the hotel that no one must enter… um, The Shining again. Outsider visits rural community with an air of superiority and has a difficult time of it thereafter… um, The Wicker Man, or is it An American Werewolf in London? A witch of folkloric legend makes people disappear… Blair Witch! The disappearance may be natural or supernatural, but the main character must discover the answer… The Wicker Man again! There is even a fun riff on the found footage genre in the form of a Dictaphone that has captured the victim’s last hours.
And yet, Hokum takes all of these ingredients and integrates them in a way that feels organic and not at all derivative. There is a sense of mystery and dread from the start, which comes as much from a series of gradual revelation as much as it does from visceral horror on screen. For example, we know that Ohm is troubled but we don’t know why. He is completing a novel, but the ending, which reflects his psychological state, has not been finalised. So there are two endings to wait for: the novel he’s writing and the film we’re watching. Then there are the two main mysteries: the disappearance, and what exactly is in the honeymoon suite. It is remarkable that McCarthy has managed to so elegantly weave so many elements of his story into what is a relatively compact runtime. The net result is that the film rivets the viewer from start to finish. This is also accomplished aesthetically. The film has a muted colour palette, that reflects Ohm’s depressed mental state, and has a jarring scratchy-scrapey soundtrack. Did I say the film is creepy?
If there are some small (very small) criticisms to make, it could be said that the extra layer of horror related to Ohm’s back story – he’s apparently being haunted in addition to having to deal with a witch in the honeymoon sweet, poor bloke – feels like one thread too many. One imagines that McCarthy had two big ideas that got smooshed together. One could also say that the film, which builds to a point of incredible tension, loosens its grip just a little in the final act, and also that the positive note with which it ends is perhaps a little is a little out-of-step with what has come before, tonally at least. Weirdly, the final scene feels like the kind of imposed grace note that are often insisted upon by studios wanting to add a commercial wrapping to otherwise bleak, auteur driven movies.
But let’s put all that aside. Hokum is a riveting horror that satisfies emotionally and dramatically, while also delivering sequences of true horror. It will keep you pinned to your seat from start to finish.
